Corax: Lord of Shadows – Guy Haley

For Guy Haley’s second novel in the Horus Heresy Primarchs series, he’s tackled the conflict at the heart of the Raven Guard primarch in Corax: Lord of Shadows. The 27th Expedition has stalled attempting to bring the Carinae Sodality – a civilisation spanning a thousand artificial moons – to compliance. While the Expedition’s commander requested assistance from the Night Lords, Corax answers instead and is determined to succeed without resorting to Curze’s tactics. The Sodality’s stubborn resistance forces Corax into escalating levels of violence, while back on Kiavahr conflict is brewing as resentment towards the Guilders spills over into bloodshed.

Corax’s origin story has already been told (he’s had quite a lot of attention before with Gav Thorpe’s Deliverance Lost and the stories making up Corax), so instead this looks closely at the balance between justice and vengeance that occupies his thoughts and drives his actions. From early conversations with his brother Guilliman to his growing frustration, irritation and even horror at the progress of the compliance action, we see Corax continuously being challenged and trying to find a path that allows him to fulfil his role and still retain his humanity. While he’s nominally a ‘good’ character as we know he’ll side with the Emperor, we’re reminded that he has the potential for great darkness within him.

It’s told through various viewpoints, including Corax as well as several of his sons, Caius Valerius of the Therion Cohort, and a couple of human characters back on Kiavahr. The narrative is split into two clear sections – the Carinae compliance and the troubles on Kiavahr – although the compliance section is further expanded by an exploration of the genetic condition affecting some of the Raven Guard known as the ‘Sable Brand’, and what that means. It’s not always clear how the different strands are connected or quite where they’re going, but by the end they tie neatly together in a thematic sense. It might feel a little divergent in places, but ultimately the whole story is geared towards demonstrating the darkness at Corax’s (and therefore the Raven Guard’s) core, how that affects his and the legion’s behaviour, and how Corax fights against it.

The different strands also work nicely to bulk out what might otherwise have been a slightly lightweight story – the core compliance arc is interesting, but this way there’s much more depth and interest. Haley nails the appropriate Horus Heresy feel and tone with a great balance of action (some typically stealthy, but definitely not all) and reflective, quieter moments, with Corax’s conversations with Guilliman a particular highlight – on the face of it these two primarchs are wildly different, but they prove to have more in common than you might imagine. Overall it’s a slightly different style of character study to the rest of the series so far, but proves effective in showing the relatable, human (despite his posthuman nature) conflict within a primarch who desperately wants to be more than just a warlord.

Check out the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.

Click here to order Corax: Lord of Shadows.

3 comments

    1. Well Descent of Angels is a Dark Angels book so you won’t get much about Corax in there! Personally I’d read the three main Raven Guard books in publishing order – Deliverance Lost, Corax (which collects together various novellas and shorts), then Lord of Shadows. I think (been a long time since I read it) that Deliverance Lost has Corax’s origin story in it alongside the Heresy-era story arc.

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